Night lights for residential use are well known in the art. They are used primarily to dimly illuminate corridors and rooms in order to ease a child's fear of darkness, or to aid a person walking around at night in an otherwise dark environment. Night lights are especially common in children's rooms and in bathrooms to provide dim illumination. Traditionally, night lights have utilized standard length blades in their construction. Such a length is considered necessary to accommodate the electrical current needed by the night light, to secure the night light physically in the receptacle, and to ensure a secure electrical connection when the night light is fully plugged in. However, a night light with standard length blades unexpectedly exposes a gap between the body of the night light and the receptacle, whereby small children can insert their fingers into the gap while the night light is still plugged in, and thereby suffer an electrical shock.
Historically, this issue was not known or utilized in the design of night lights. Some have been designed with flared bases that lie flush against the wall when inserted in a standard duplex wall receptacle. The aim is to reduce the risk of a child or adult grasping the blades while inserting or removing the night light. However, there still remains a relatively small risk that the night light will be pulled out enough so that a small child's fingers can be inserted in the gap created between the wall and the back of the night light while the blades remain physically and electrically connected to the conductor in the receptacle. Therefore, a long felt need has existed for a safe night light designed such that, at all points including those where the blades make relatively minor contact with the conductor in the receptacle, it is impossible for a child's fingers to contact the live blades. The blades must be long enough to ensure a proper electrical connection and to securely support the night light in the receptacle.